CHAP, v.] ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM. 289

million. The king assented, and receiving one hun-dred thousand, allowed a delay for the rest . 1 Butto please the Franks, he was forced to a furtheradvance ; and, though a carrier pigeon arrived tothe caliph with a note that Noureddin’s forceswere on the road and would arrive within fifteendays, yet the assault might be sooner; and if thetidings reached the Christians, immediate . 2 Al-meric had now pitched by the lake, scarce twoleagues from Old Cairo. New Cairo was indeedfortified, and might stand a severe siege; but theold was defenceless, and the soldiers at all eventsmight have every comfort there, during severalweeks of rest; and even fearfully pillage it, beforegoing to assault the new. But the fatal EmirSchems-elk-helafe entered again the royal tent.It was night-fall, and he led the king to the can-vass door and lifted it: <£ You see those immenseflames that mount up to heaven?” “I do!”“ Well, it is Old Cairo on fire, I lighted it myself,by the caliph’s and vizier’s orders. I had twentythousand bottles of naphtha sprinkled everywhereon the heaps of wood and other inflammable mat-ter; and lit it at once in hundreds of places with

1 Arab. Chron., 131.

Ibn-Alatir, 151.